What is IP or copyright? Who owns it?

You might have heard of copyright and wonder what IP is and how the two are related.  A common question people have is, “Are they the same thing?”  The short answer is NO. IP includes three rights: copyright, design rights, and moral rights, while Copyright protects the original artwork.

In IP, design rights give the holder the exclusive right to make the design. Moral rights include the rights to be acknowledged as the artist when the work is displayed in public and the right to object to derogatory treatment of the work.

An interesting fact is that if you as an artist sold a painting to someone and the owner decided to change it and paint on it without your approval, you could sue that person. When you sell your artwork, you usually do not sell your IP unless specific terms are included in the contract; you keep your copyright but have the ability to change the rights you grant from none to all, commercial or non-commercial, allow or deny derivative works, and set a level of attribution.